2-for-1 tickets to Scythians exhibition at the British Museum

Discover the lost civilisation of ancient Siberia at the British Museum with two-for-one tickets to the BP exhibition Scythians: warriors of ancient Siberia.

The Scythians were exceptional horsemen and warriors, and feared adversaries and neighbours of the ancient Greeks, Assyrians and Persians between 900 and 200BC. This exhibition tells their story through exciting archaeological discoveries and perfectly preserved objects frozen in time.

This is the first major exhibition to explore the Scythians in the UK in 40 years. Many of the objects on display date back over 2,500 years. They are exceptionally well preserved as they come from burial mounds in the high Altai mountains of southern Siberia, where the frozen ground prevented them from deteriorating.

More than 200 outstanding objects reveal all aspects of Scythian life, including a major loan in collaboration with the State Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg, and other generous loans from the National Museum of the Republic of Kazakhstan, the Ashmolean Museum and the Royal Collection.

Objects preserved by the permafrost include multi-coloured textiles, fur-lined garments and accessories, unique horse headgear and tattooed human remains. Tattooing was common among the Scythians and incredible examples were preserved in the frozen tombs. This art shows natural and mythical animals with heavily contorted bodies, often in close combat, and there are examples of exceptionally well-preserved early tattooed remains on loan from the State Hermitage Museum.

“The Scythians, like many so-called primitive peoples put their devotional images not in temples, but on their bodies, in the form of tattoos, jewellery and ritual garments,” writes The Telegraph’s Mark Hudson in his five-star review.

The exhibition is supported by BP and is running at the British Museum until January 14, 2018.